Browsing by Author "Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts"
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Item Barriers to guideline-concordant antibiotic use among inpatient physicians: A case vignette qualitative study(Wiley, 2016-03) Livorsi, D.; Comer, Amber R.; Matthias, Marianne S.; Perencevich, E.N.; Bair, M.J.; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal ArtsBACKGROUND: Greater adherence to antibiotic-prescribing guidelines may promote more judicious antibiotic use, which could benefit individual patients and society at large. OBJECTIVE: To assess physician knowledge and acceptance of antibiotic-prescribing guidelines through the use of case vignettes. DESIGN: We conducted semistructured interviews with 30 inpatient physicians. Participants were asked to respond to 3 hypothetical case vignettes: (1) a skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI), (2) suspected hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), and (3) asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB). All participants received feedback according to guidelines from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and were asked to discuss their level of comfort with following these guidelines. SETTING: Two acute care teaching hospitals for adult patients. INTERVENTION: None. MEASUREMENTS: Data from transcribed interviews were analyzed using emergent thematic analysis. RESULTS: Participants were receptive to guidelines and believed they were useful. However, participants' responses to the case vignettes demonstrated that IDSA guideline recommendations were not routinely followed for SSTI, HAP, and ASB. We identified 3 barriers to guideline-concordant care: (1) physicians' lack of awareness of specific guideline recommendations; (2) tension between adhering to guidelines and the desire to individualize patient care; and (3) skepticism of certain guideline recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: Case vignettes may be useful tools to assess physician knowledge and acceptance of antibiotic-prescribing guidelines. Using case vignettes, we identified 3 barriers to following IDSA guidelines. Efforts to improve guideline-concordant antibiotic prescribing should focus on reducing such barriers at the local level.Item A Brief Peer Support Intervention for Veterans with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Pilot Study of Feasibility and Effectiveness(Wiley, 2015-01) Matthias, Marianne S.; McGuire, Alan B.; Kukla, Marina; Daggy, Joanne; Myers, Laura J.; Bair, Matthew J.; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal ArtsObjective The aim of this study was to pilot test a peer support intervention, involving peer delivery of pain self-management strategies, for veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Design Pretest/posttest with 4-month intervention period. Methods Ten peer coaches were each assigned 2 patients (N = 20 patients). All had chronic musculoskeletal pain. Guided by a study manual, peer coach–patient pairs were instructed to talk biweekly for 4 months. Pain was the primary outcome and was assessed with the PEG, a three-item version of the Brief Pain Inventory, and the PROMIS Pain Interference Questionnaire. Several secondary outcomes were also assessed. To assess change in outcomes, a linear mixed model with a random effect for peer coaches was applied. Results Nine peer coaches and 17 patients completed the study. All were male veterans. Patients' pain improved at 4 months compared with baseline but did not reach statistical significance (PEG: P = 0.33, ICC [intra-class correlation] = 0.28, Cohen's d = −0.25; PROMIS: P = 0.17, d = −0.35). Of secondary outcomes, self-efficacy (P = 0.16, ICC = 0.56, d = 0.60) and pain centrality (P = 0.06, ICC = 0.32, d = −0.62) showed greatest improvement, with moderate effect sizes. Conclusions This study suggests that peers can effectively deliver pain self-management strategies to other veterans with pain. Although this was a pilot study with a relatively short intervention period, patients improved on several outcomes.Item Building a “Better Life”: The Transformative Effects of Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting(Sage, 2015-01) Cherry, Colleen O'Brien; Chumbler, Neale; Bute, Jennifer J.; Huff, Amber; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal ArtsAdolescent pregnancy is often described as a major concern in public health and is associated with negative outcomes for educational and career attainment. Our objective was to compare the future aspirations of pregnant and parenting adolescents and identify social or structural barriers that they experience in their daily lives using journal entries from pregnant and parenting adolescents. The journals, which served as primary data sources, were completed by 52 multi-ethnic pregnant and parenting adolescents aged 15 to 19 in Indiana. Both pregnant and parenting adolescents aspired to provide a “better life” for their children that included finishing school and obtaining a career. An emergent theme is that the experience of pregnancy and parenting is transformative and may invoke a positive refocusing of life aspirations for educational and career attainment. However, social stigma and barriers exist that make achieving educational and employment opportunities difficult. The study findings indicate that pregnant and parenting adolescents need strong social support networks and practical tools to help harness their motivation and transcend social and material barriers to achieve their goals and aspirations.Item Critical Race Humor in a Postracial Moment: Richard Pryor’s Contemporary Parrhesia(Taylor and Francis, 2014-02) Rossing, Jonathan P.; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal ArtsRacial truth-telling becomes a difficult project given the current sociopolitical context that privileges postracialism and neoliberal individualism. Critical race humor, however, remains a public and popular discourse where people not only speak but also engage powerful racial truths. This article presents critical race humor as a contemporary form of parrhesia, or frank and courageous criticism. As a critical practice, parrhesia resonates with tenets of critical race scholarship and critical communication scholarship. Using the truth-telling comedy of the late Richard Pryor as a case study, this article suggests that critical race humor could be understood as parrhesia for our time. Moreover, critical race humor as a form of public pedagogy might provide people with the skills and habits of thought necessary to think critically about and transform racial knowledge and reality.Item Dick Gregory and Activist Style: Identifying Attributes of Humor necessary for Activist Advocacy(2013) Rossing, Jonathan P.; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal ArtsHuman rights advocacy is often austere, if not funereal. Nevertheless, humorists have long engaged human rights activism through their art. Against claims that humor weakens action or conservatively maintains the status quo, this essay argues for humor as necessary element in human rights activism. At its best, humor awakens communities by providing new perspectives on reality and sharpening understandings of injustice. It provokes dialogue and action and humanizes all parties in a struggle. This essay explores humor as a necessary, if not sufficient, component of an activist political style through a case study of comedian and activist Dick Gregory. Using evidence from Gregory's performances and speeches as well as public discourse about Gregory, this essay establishes humor as an integral characteristic of an activist political style.Item Emancipatory Racial Humor as Critical Public Pedagogy: Subverting Hegemonic Racism(Wiley, 2016-12) Rossing, Jonathan P.; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal ArtsThis essay identifies emancipatory racial humor as a disarming critical public pedagogy that confronts racial hegemony. Acknowledging the interpretive quandaries of humor and the possibilities of racist humor, this essay tells an often overlooked story of the comic “heroes” who struggle against dominant racial meanings, power relationships, and identity constructions. The essay analyzes the pedagogical possibilities of critical humorists who creatively confront hegemonic racism and whose work participates in critical projects of social, political, and cultural transformation. Such emancipatory racial humor serves as a critical public pedagogy that exposes dominant public pedagogies, injects counternarratives into the struggle over hegemony, and subverts naturalized racial meanings and privileges.Item Exploring Parental Influence on the Progression of Alcohol Use in Mexican-Heritage Youth: a Latent Transition Analysis(Springer, 2016-02) Shin, YoungJu; Lee, Jeong-Kyu; Lu, Yu; Hecht, Michael; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal ArtsMexican-heritage youth are members of the fastest growing minority group and are at particular risk for substance use including alcohol consumption. Youth face numerous risk factors including positive descriptions of substance use on media and peer offers that are potentially ameliorated by parental anti-substance use socialization efforts. Guided by primary socialization theory and the theory of planned behavior, the present study posited eight research questions to identify discrete subgroups/patterns of Mexican-heritage youth alcohol use behavior and parental influence on youth outcomes. Longitudinal survey data (n = 1147) from youth in 29 public schools located in Phoenix, Arizona, were collected over 3 years. Latent class and transition analyses identified four discrete subgroups characterized by response patterns of alcohol use behaviors and perceptions in Mexican-heritage youth: (1) non-drinker, (2) potential drinker, (3) experimenter, and (4) regular drinker. Targeted parent-child communication about alcohol and parental monitoring were found to be significant predictors for youth alcohol use. Research implications and future directions are suggested.Item Facilitators and Barriers to Participation in a Peer Support Intervention for Veterans With Chronic Pain(Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer) - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2016-06) Matthias, Marianne S.; Kukla, Marina; McGuire, Alan B.; Damush, Teresa M.; Gill, Nabiha; Bair, Matthew J.; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal ArtsOBJECTIVE: To understand facilitators and barriers to participation in a peer support intervention for self-management of chronic pain. METHODS: After completing a pilot intervention study, peer coaches and their veteran patients took part in a qualitative, semistructured interview to explore their experiences with the intervention. Data were analyzed using an immersion/crystallization approach. RESULTS: Three facilitators and 2 barriers to patient participation in a peer support intervention for veterans with chronic pain emerged. Facilitators were (1) having a shared identity as veterans, (2) being partnered with a person who also has chronic pain, and (3) support from the study staff. Barriers were (1) logistical challenges, and (2) challenges to motivation and engagement in the intervention. DISCUSSION: Awareness of facilitators and barriers to participation in a peer-supported self-management program for chronic pain, as well as strategies to capitalize on facilitators and mitigate barriers, are essential for further study and ultimate clinical implementation of such a program.Item The Health-Related Uses and Gratifications of YouTube: Motive, Cognitive Involvement, Online Activity, and Sense of Empowerment(Taylor & Francis, 2016) Park, Daniel Y.; Goering, Elizabeth M.; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal ArtsTo better understand the utility of YouTube as a health communication medium, this study utilizes Uses and Gratifications Theory to examine a relationship among motives for health-related YouTube use, cognitive involvement with health information on YouTube, post-exposure online activity, and health-related sense of empowerment. Surveys were analyzed from 263 participants who reported using YouTube for health-related reasons. Results revealed specific motives for health-related YouTube use and a significant relationship among the variables. Implications for how health care professionals could use YouTube for communicating with users about health-related topics and empowering them in health care are discussed.Item iLearning: The Future of Higher Education? Student Perceptions on Learning with Mobile Tablets(2012) Rossing, Jonathan P.; Miller, Willie; Cecil, Amanda K.; Stamper, Suzan E.; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal ArtsThe growing use of mobile technology on college campuses suggests the future of the classroom, including learning activities, research, and even student faculty communications, will rely heavily on mobile technology. Since Fall 2010, an interdisciplinary team of faculty from Indiana University--Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has experimented with the use of iPads in the classroom. This paper includes the preliminary results of a study on student impressions of mobile technology in the classroom. The paper will report both opportunities and limitations for incorporating mobile technologies in learning environments. (Contains 1 figure, 4 footnotes and 7 tables.)